This Friday December 13th the GOYA Project plans to throw a holiday party for the children of Youth Empowerment Services (YES), an after school program for the children of New Brunswick, and we need volunteers!

WHEN: Friday December 13th 2013

TIME: 4:30-5:30pm (please be on time as the event only lasts an hour!)

WHAT WE NEED: Activities for the children vary, so we need people for a few different things.

Gift Wrappers: We are going to be gift wrapping books for the children to take home for themselves and to give as gifts for friends and neighbors in their community, so we need volunteers who can neatly wrap books.

Face Painting: One of the activities we wish to do is face painting, so we need a volunteer who can paint simple designs on the children’s faces.

Arts&Crafts: We’re going to have a coloring/craft station for the kids to design simple Christmas ornaments and Christmas cards to take home and hang on their tree or in their window. Volunteers are needed to assist the children in doing this.

Henna tattoos: This inclusion of this activity at the event depends on if any of our volunteers know how to do simple henna designs. If so, please inform us as soon as possible!

Cultural Holiday Celebrations (presentation): To make this event educational as well as fun, we wish to include a short (15 minute) interactive presentation on holiday celebrations from different cultures (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa). For this activity volunteers are needed to present and engage the audience using visual aids.

Before the event all volunteers and members of GOYA who wish to participate need to meet up for an hour or two Monday Dec 9th at 8pm at Alexander Library (College Ave) ANDThursday Dec 12th to go over individual responsibilities. All those interested please send an email to Elsa at elsabean@eden.rutgers.edu with your phone number/contact info at your earliest convenience.

This past Friday October 25th, the GOYA Project participated in the 10th Annual Monster Mash at Rutgers University. Monster Mash is a safe alternative trick-or-treating event for elementary school children from New Brunswick, Piscataway, Highland Park, and other surrounding areas. Along with giving out candy, Monster Mash is an opportunity for student organizations at Rutgers to promote their cause and give back to the community. Hundreds of student organizations set up tables with activities and give aways for the kids, and GOYA was no different. This year our table was a coloring and construction station where children could cut, glue, and color tombstones any way they wanted. Needless to say, things got pretty messy!

Supplies for Monster Mash

Student volunteers worked on assisting the children with their activities and keeping things under control throughout the day. We also gave out handbooks to the parents of toddlers and first graders that emphasized the importance of reading at a young age. The children had a great time expressing their artistic ability and eating candy, and the volunteers had a great time putting smiles on their faces!

Kids at Monster Mash design their own tombstones

We’d like to thank Sam and Massah for helping set up everything so well!

We are working hard but remember, it’s really about you and your support. Let all your friends know about the walk on October 12th! Send out reminders and see if you can arrange to meet up on the morning of the walk. If you are part of another organization remind them to contact us about supporting the walk as a group. We will place your organization’s name on the walkathon t-shirt!

We are tremendously excited to have you aboard once more. This fall semester we hope to have a fantastic series of opportunities for you to get involved with.
– Look out for our Walk-for-Literacy on October 12th.
– We’re looking forward to excited kids for Halloween Monster Mash at the end of October.
– We want to help with outreach at the local New Brunswick library
– We also want to assist at the Tiny Tots center as well as at Youth Empowerment Services, both of which seek to make a difference for young people in New Brunswick
-We are working with NJ4Haiti and the Global Literacy Project, Inc. to assist students in Haiti

And that’s just to start!
Bring your ideas to add to the list and let’s make this a semester of difference!

WALK FOR LITERACY IS THIS SATURDAY !!!!! It’s fast approaching and we could not be more excited! We have entertainers for the rally, food , water and most importantly the support of the Rutgers Community. We are grateful to all the organizations and friends that have come together to help us make sure this event will be a success. Thank you and remember every donation counts!

Also all forms for the walk for literacy are located in a previous post. Feel free to download and print out!

If you guys are around the DCC at about 12-4 today please come to our bake sale and show your support! Thanks to everyone that baked goods for the sale and are helping us table

Now I know we haven’t made it past our first event yet but we are already prepping for Monster Mash. The general body has fabulous ideas for what to do this year for our table and we can’t wait to see how you guys put this together. Remember, Monster Mash is all about you guys! and the kids, can’t forget the kids

We also have Elijah’s promise to look forward to and the 16 days campaign for gender violence awareness. We do have to brainstorm some ideas for this too but all in good time.

Lastly we’d like to welcome all the new faces to our general body meeting today. It’s 8-9 pm in Livingston Student Center , Room 109. See you guys there!

Thank you to all the individuals, organizations, and businesses who participated in our Annual Walk-for-Literacy. We were able to raise over $2000 for our initiative to assist communities locally and globally in facilitating literacy.

We kicked off the walk outside the Douglass Student Center, where participants ate the complementary breakfast refreshments while organizations made banners. After everyone was registered Denniston Bonadie, Rutgers Africana Studies Dept. professor and Faculty Advisor to The GOYA Project, along with Dr. Olubayi, Dean Goughan, and members from GOYA’s E-board gave thanks and motivational words to everyone present. After the 5K walk, we were entertained by the vocal stylings of the Liberated Gospel Choir, then by Rutger’s own DJ E-Rod and ate pizza donated by Gerlanda’s and Paulie’s Pizzerias, and beverages donated by 7-Eleven and RU Pizza and Grill. Some amazing prizes were awarded to two distinguished walkers who raised the most in individual sponsorships, and more prizes were raffled off to a dozen more lucky walkers.

All in all, a beautiful event, on a beautiful day!!!! Special thanks go out to the businesses below:

Volunteers Invited!

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in collaboration with the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, invites all Rutgers faculty and students to submit posters (by October 26) for the annual Global Health Fair, which takes place on December 3 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. [Poster guidlines Click here; Poster template Click here; Poster example: Danka Paulo and Tara Iyer (USA)] Learn more here.